Continuing my theme of reflection, now comes the time for me to get something off my chest – it’s time for the inevitable rant.<\/p>\n
At this stage I feel I have to comment on some of the posts I have seen, on this site and others, that fill me with dread.\u00a0 They\u2019re the kind of posts that say \u2018ran two miles this week, I\u2019ll try three next week but my feet are really sore, my progress is so slow, maybe when I get my\u00a0fivefingers\/huaraches I can increase my distance\u2019.<\/p>\n
Believe me that I am absolutely sincere when I say that I am not being critical of anyone\u2019s aspirations or enthusiasm, but the one thing I have learned about barefoot running from my own experience, and from reading the posts of long established barefooters, is that it takes T I M E.\u00a0 And this doesn\u2019t mean a couple of weeks or a couple of months \u2013 we\u2019re talking years.<\/p>\n
I can understand that many runners (myself included) will find it frustrating that they can go and run 10 or 20 miles in regular shoes but then are held back to a measly 1 or 2 miles by barefoot, but that\u2019s life.\u00a0 Our bodies may have been designed to go barefoot but most of us have ignored or modified that design throughout our lifetimes.\u00a0 There\u2019s no getting away from the fact that shoes have become the norm in many parts of the world.<\/p>\n
Try and add up the number of hours, days, years that you have been walking and running in shoes.\u00a0 Think of the countless steps taken \u2013 each one articulated by bones, muscles and tendons encased in shoes.\u00a0 If you take away that protection, support and preset locomotive pattern, everything changes.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just about blisters, it\u2019s about impact on bone and soft tissue, new ranges of motion putting tension on ligaments, and muscles having to adapt to new ways of carrying weight.<\/p>\n
Your body needs time to change, to adapt, to grow – three hours of barefoot running spread over 15 weeks doesn\u2019t even begin to make a real inroad to a body propelled for 43 years in shoes.<\/p>\n
So take it easy – be kind to yourself and your body, and give yourself a chance.<\/p>\n
Rant over.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s only because I love you\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Continuing my theme of reflection, now comes the time for me to get something off my chest – it’s time for the inevitable rant. At this stage I feel I have to comment on some of the posts I have seen, on this site and others, that fill me with dread.\u00a0 They\u2019re the kind of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-barefoot-running-diaries","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1614,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613\/revisions\/1614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}